Marilu White
06/05/2003
CMT.com
Not too hot, not too cold. In fact, it was just right for the annual City of Hope Celebrity Softball game Thursday (June 5) at Nashville�s Greer Stadium. An enthusiastic, sun-drenched crowd greeted a multitude of country music artists as they arrived. Crowding the fences, fans took pictures and collected autographs prior to the game.
Joe Nichols, Chris Cagle, Bryan White, Linda Davis, Vince Gill, Lorrie Morgan and Sammy Kershaw, Dusty Drake, Aaron Lines, Chalee Tennison and others comprised the teams sponsored by two local radio stations.
Rebecca Lynn Howard opened the event with the national anthem. Once the game began, so did the monkey business. Billy Dean�s first appearance at the plate was interrupted by Trick Pony�s Ira Dean squirting water all over him. Foul balls stretched into base hits. Troy Gentry visited with fans along the right field foul line until Vince Gill sailed a ball into right field. Cigar in mouth, Gentry ran after the ball, only to return to the fans after the play. At one point, when no one appeared ready to bat, emcee Cledus T. Judd grabbed a bat to hit. Heidi Newfield of Trick Pony batted twice in one inning -- once for herself, then later for Lonestar�s Dean Sams. At times, there was evidence of somewhat serious softball taking place. But for the most part, it was softball of a much different breed.
Ira Dean led the fans in cheers throughout the game from atop the dugout. Sams joined him in a fan-pleasing buck dancing-type cheer.
Play was interrupted momentarily when a scantily clad fellow scampered across the field. Security was called, but the fellow moved quicker than security. As it turned out, the streaker was actually Ben Sesar, Brad Paisley�s drummer, who was promoting the July 22 release of his boss� new album, Mud on the Tires. While Sesar was actually clad in a gray thong, he later joked, �I must be missing whatever chromosome tells me I should know better." Noting that the security guards at the softball game were part of the joke, Sesar said, �I wanted to make sure I didn't get arrested."
Since its inception, the softball game has raised more than 1 million dollars to support the City of Hope National Medical Center and the Beckman Research Institute in its commitment to prevent and cure cancer and a host of other life-threatening diseases.
From Countrynow.com
By Donna Hughes
September 27 - October 11, 2002
Howard's Beginning
Rebecca Lynn Howard may have finally found the key to stardom with her current single, "Forgive." The song, which has ascended into the Top 20 of Billboard's country chart, is the title track from the 23-year-old singer-songwriter's second album and is the first single of her career to reach these heights.
Rebecca Lynn was born in Salyersville, Ky., where she began singing at an early age. By the time she was in elementary school, she had already learned how to play the piano and was beginning to write her own songs. She toured with the Kentucky Opry variety show for three years and opened concerts for such acts as Martina McBride, John Michael Montgomery and Vince Gill. Rebecca Lynn decided it was time to move to Nashville when she was barely 17 years old, and got her start in the biz as a songwriter, with John Michael, Jessica Andrews and Lila McCann among the artists who have recorded her compositions. At 18, she was signed to Rising Tide Records. After she began work on her first album, the label closed before she had time to release it. She was picked up by Decca Records, but as she started working on her disc there, Decca closed. Rebecca Lynn then was signed to its sister label, MCA Records, and released her self-titled debut album in May 2000 to little fanfare. During this time, she went through a deeply emotional period trying to figure out what her priorities were.
Now free of the tumult that had engulfed her life, Rebecca Lynn is back better than ever, with her sophomore effort, Forgive, debuting at No. 5 on Billboard's country albums chart during its first week of release. The disc's title track, meanwhile, is included on the soundtrack to the hit NBC program Providence. Rebecca Lynn will perform the tune on the show in November.
Rebecca Lynn recently sat down with us to talk about "Forgive," her emotional breakthrough and her thoughts on Trisha Yearwood recording one of her songs.
Learning To Forgive Herself
Rebecca Lynn Howard: I'm really proud of this album. I feel like it's such a true reflection of where I've been, like in the past couple years. I went through one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through in what little time I've been here on this earth. But when I was about three singles deep in the first record -- it was probably two-and-a-half years ago or something -- I had a nervous breakdown . . . Nobody even really knew. I just made myself kinda scarce for awhile. Well, I went through just a year and a half of torment with that, you know. And being stressed out all the time to the point of just, like, suffocating almost to death, you know. It was the weirdest thing. It was chronic anxiety. And then I went through a period of depression. And I was like, 'What is wrong with me?' You know, 'I'm so young. And everybody seems to think I've got my whole life ahead of me, but if I don't get any better, I'm gonna die,' you know?! I mean, it was really that bad. It just completely changed who I was, but I think for the better, 'cause it taught me so many lessons and it grew me up so super-quick. And now I have such a fresh, new perspective on life because I just feel like I've been birthed all over again, you know?
A Call To Order
I had my priorities so out of whack. Music came before anything and everything. And everything was dead last, you know, after [music]. You know, I put music before God. I mean, it was my God. And I just realized, 'Why am I doing this? Why am I instilling so much worth and value into something that doesn't care for me, that doesn't really care for the human feelings.' The business side all comes down to the bottom line. And that's what a lot of people don't realize. Yeah, artists want it to be all about the music. But it ain't. It ain't all about the music. Because in business, it's all about the figures and the numbers . . . And then I just readjusted things, and I put God back up at the top and I put my family and friends and everything else that was important to me . . . next, and then music. And then it just seems to fit so much better that way.
Thou Shalt Love Thyself and Thy Neighbor
I love myself now. I didn't used to love myself. And I had a really hard time coming to that place where I truly loved who I was . . . It was like I just asked God to show me who I really was and it was ugly . . . I thought I was a loving person and I found out I was a judgmental person. I thought I was a caring person and I just found out that I was just an ambitious, selfish person. I mean, try swallowing that. That is really, really hard to choke down. And so it really broke me down, and then when I went through all that stuff, I just did a lot of soul-searching. I was like, 'OK, if you're gonna work on me, then just work until you get it right, OK? Because I just want to go through this one time. I wouldn't care about going through this again, if you don't mind.' I think that's why it took so long, 'cause I just had to get cleaned out. I had to get all of that gross, ugly nastiness out of me. And I am such a loving person now. Not that I wasn't before, but I love people so much . . . And when you can be at peace with yourself, you can be at peace with other people. And that's why I was judging everybody else, because I wasn't comfortable with me.
Absolute Absolution
'Forgive' -- I think it's just kind of opened . . . my eyes and I wrote it . . . I mean, it really spells out forgiveness, but how hard it is. And how bad we want to forgive people, but we're just not geared that way. Humans just aren't geared to be forgiving spirits. We're just not . . . But that's what I wanted this whole song to be about, you know, not so much about the incident, but the thereafter. The what-happens-next, you know? And when my best friend was going through her divorce . . . she said, 'How could I leave when I was frozen? You know, I was numb. I couldn't even move.' And . . . I couldn't imagine going through that kind of betrayal and hurt, and you know that you'd have to think, 'Well, did I do something?' And then you would be, you'd definitely hold a grudge. And she's a very forgiving person. And we were just talking about forgiveness and then I had that idea. And it's the curse of being a songwriter, you know. I didn't want to have an idea about that, because that's my best friend.
Two Over Par
Patty Loveless was the first one that ever cut ['I Don't Paint Myself Into Corners'] . . . she cut it before I did and it didn't make her album. And then so I cut it, and it didn't do anything there. But you know, I've always believed a song will live where it's supposed to, and it just wasn't supposed to live at my house. It was supposed to live with Trisha [Yearwood]. And let me tell you what I think of her version (laughs). I heard that when she cut it, she was worried that it wasn't gonna live up to par to my version. All I got to say is, 'Whatever, Trisha. Whatever. You ain't getting no pity from me. OK?' She's got the best [vocal] cords in town. 'You ain't gettin' no pity from me.' She wails. She absolutely wails.
Craig Shelburne
09/12/2002
CMT.com
In Rebecca Lynn Howard�s hit ballad �Forgive,� a man abruptly admits his infidelity and then says through his falling tears, �Can you ever just forgive?�
The question lingers: Well, can she?
�You can�t,� Howard tells CMT.com, flat-out. �We�re not geared to do that. It�s something that we should do and it�s a good thing to forgive people, I think, but that is so against our nature as human beings, and more so, it is [against our nature] to forget. People say �forgive and forget.� Well, that ain�t possible. Maybe I�ve never been done dirty enough to know what it really is to forgive somebody wholly about something. But to forget it? Unless I got amnesia, I ain�t forgetting it, and nobody else is going to either.�
One person who certainly won�t forget is the young woman who inspired the song, currently at No. 22 on the Billboard country singles chart. The video climbs to No. 14 in CMT�s Top Twenty Countdown.
�My best friend went through a divorce about two-and-a-half years ago and the idea sparked from the hardships that she had to endure,� Howard says. �Before I wrote it, I called her and I was like �Look, I have this idea and I won�t write it if you don�t want me to.� She was like, �I don�t care. That�s my past and I�m moving on. If you can benefit from it, great, go ahead. I�m glad someone can benefit from the crap that I�ve got to go through.��
Howard and producer Trey Bruce wrote �Forgive� with the biting lyric �That�s a mighty big word for such a small man.� When Howard sang it for her friend, the reaction wasn�t exactly what the songwriters expected.
�The first time my friend heard it, she laughed her head off. She was like, �I cannot believe that you wrote this about me. I�m going to be famous!�� Howard recalls with a robust laugh. �After they got divorced, she moved back home and she called me the first time Dallas [radio] played it: �They played your song and you�re number five on the top five at five!� She�s told all her friends, �This is about me!� So, she�s enjoying the success.�
That success has been a long time coming, even for a cheerful 23-year-old. A native of Salyersville, Ky., (pop. 1200), Howard moved to Nashville at age 17, after numerous childhood visits.
�The first time I ever came to Nashville, I was 10 years old and we stayed at the Opryland Hotel. I could have sucked my face in! I�d never seen anything that big. I said, �You could fit a hundred Wal-Marts in this place!� I couldn�t believe that there was a building that was that big. My mind was too limited, because in a small town, buildings are just small. Really small. You could fit my whole city in there.�
She soon signed to Rising Tide Records, also home to Dolly Parton at the time. However, the label sank before releasing Howard�s album, although she did appear on The Apostle soundtrack. She then transferred to Decca Records, though it ultimately closed, too. MCA Nashville picked her up, but her 2000 self-titled debut failed to chart a Top 40 hit. However, labelmate Trisha Yearwood plucked two songs from it for her Inside Out album, �Melancholy Blue� and �I Don�t Paint Myself Into Corners.�
Talking about Yearwood�s vote of confidence in the midst of a turbulent career, Howard says, �That�s very weird. I guess �weird� is a good word, right? Actually, it�s like a full-circle moment. Do you ever watch Oprah? She talks about full-circle moments all the time, and that was definitely one for me. When I first came to this town, I was a little girl singing �She�s in Love With the Boy.� So Trisha was it! I always wanted to be a vocalist like her.�
Yet, Howard�s not one to linger in the studio, agonizing over her own octave-stretching performance.
�I�m a three-times-through singer, and if I can�t get it in three times, let�s move to the next song. I get really tired with a song really quick in the studio. Some artists stand and sing for eight hours on the same song. They�d have to carry me out on the stretcher. I couldn�t do that! I sing with my whole heart the first time through, and the second and third time, I try to nail what I didn�t nail the first time. And that�s it. I am ready to move on.�
Howard is now touring Canada with Diamond Rio and Kenny Rogers, but �Forgive� won�t be the only hit she�ll be performing.
�Well, I get to close out the show with Kenny, singing �Islands in the Stream.� When I found that out, I was bent over double laughing. I was like, �I cannot believe this! I�m going to be Dolly Parton!� I have never been nervous on stage, but I am going to be as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.�
Rebecca Lynn Howard 'Flattered' By Yearwood Cover
Trisha Yearwood's new single, "I Don't Paint Myself Into Corners," is actually a cover of a song her MCA labelmate Rebecca Lynn Howard wrote and recorded for her self-titled debut album, which was released two years ago. Yearwood first heard the song during a guitar pull that the two singers did together before Howard's album was released, and afterward told Howard it was her new favorite song.
Fast forward to an A&R meeting Yearwood had at the MCA building in Nashville in preparation for her current album, Inside Out. Howard happened to be walking through the halls saying her goodbyes to label staff before an overseas trip and accidentally stumbled into Yearwood's meeting, where she was met with a big surprise, as she tells us: "She's, like, 'We're having a meeting about my new record, and I wanted to ask you if you minded if I cut 'I Don't Paint Myself Into Corners'?' I mean, she was, like, really serious, wanting to know if I minded! I was, like, 'What kind of stupid question is that? 'Do I mind if Trisha Yearwood sings my song?' Let me think...Can I get back with you on that?' I was, like, 'Of course, I don't mind! You kiddin' me? I'd be flattered.' She's got the, like, best chords in town."
"I Don't Paint Myself Into Corners" is currently climbing the country chart, while Howard's new single, "Forgive," sits at Number 32 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
Fast Facts
Most kids in elementary school may write �What I Did On My Summer Vacation� essays, but at that age, Rebecca was writing a catalog full of songs. And when she turned ten, the confident prodigy convinced her mom to move from Kentucky to Nashville so she could pursue her career in music. That early start paid off. She honed her songwriting skills and had the likes of Reba McEntire, John Michael Montgomery, Patty Loveless cover her songs before landing her own career. Now she�s got two solo records under her belt�all of this and the girl ain�t even 21 yet! Wow. Wasn�t I still working at Burger King at 21? Yeah�
"I live by the motto that everything happens for a reason. I never try to question anything because I know there's a much bigger plan."--Rebecca Lynn Howard
Reserve your copy of Forgive!
September 7, 2002
In planning their work on her MCA Nashville album, FORGIVE, Rebecca Lynn Howard and producers Trey Bruce and Mark Wright agreed that musical diversity is a good thing.
Rebecca Lynn says, "I'm country, I'm bluegrass, I'm gospel and I'm Top-40 pop. I had all those influences as a child -- and it's just going to come out. To be anything else isn't fair to me and it's not fair to the listener. They're gonna see right through it."
Judging by her first single from the release, the emotional title song, "Forgive," quickly moving up the country charts, this is one that country fans everywhere will want to add to their collection! Rebecca Lynn's powerful new album releases everywhere on Sept. 10th but, for a limited time, you can reserve an Autographed copy right here at CountryStars.com!
CW Fan Favorite Semi-Finalists
July 31, 2002
Country Weekly's first annual Fan Favorite Awards are going strong -- and you can be a part of the fun! Voting will start online between August 6th and September 6th. Only one ballot per email address will be accepted.
To submit a written ballot, look for the August 20 and September 3rd issue of Country Weekly, and be sure to have your ballots sent in before the September 6 deadline.
Included on the ballot are familiar names such as Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Faith Hill, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Shania Twain and Lee Ann Womack.
Newcomers Steve Azar, Kellie Coffey, Emerson Drive, ***Rebecca Lynn Howard*** and Trick Pony also made the cut.
Categories in the Country Weekly Fan Favorite Awards are: Favorite Entertainer, Favorite Male Artist, Favorite Female Artists, Favorite New Group, Favorite Group, Favorite Duo, Favorite Collaborative Song, Favorite Song, Favorite Album, Favorite Video and the Career Achievement Award.
After the first round of voting, the top five nominees will appear on a ballot for the final round of voting. Online voting for this final round will occur on October 1 and last through November 10. Write-in ballots will be available in the October 15 and October 29 issues of Country Weekly.
The winners of the Fan Favorite Awards will be announced in the January 7, 2003 issue of Country Weekly.
Rebecca Lynn Howard Ends Up On Trisha's Album
July 12, 2002
Rebecca Lynn Howard may be a newcomer to the country scene, but her single "Forgive" is climbing up the charts, and she is the co-writer of Trisha Yearwood's latest single, "I Don't Paint Myself Into Corners."
Originally, Rebecca had written the song intending it to be sung by Patty Loveless.
"Nobody knows Patty Loveless songs better than I do, so I just knew I could write a song for her," she says.
However, her plan never materialized and the song didn't make it onto Patty's album.
One day while at the record company office, Rebecca ran into Trisha Yearwood who asked, "Do you mind if I record 'I Don't Paint Myself Into Corners'?"
Says Rebecca: "I almost went into cardiac arrest. I said, 'Are you kidding me? Do I mind? What kind of question is that? You've got the best set of vocal cords in this town. You can sing anything I've got. You don't even have to ask.' "
nd the rest, as they say, is history.
June 27, 2002
KENNY ROGERS, DIAMOND RIO, AND REBECCA LYNN HOWARD ANNOUNCE MAJOR 12-CITY CANADIAN CONCERT TOUR DUBBED, "THE FULL HOUSE TOUR"
Nashville, TN.. This fall, legendary entertainer, Kenny Rogers, along with Grammy Award Winning Group, Diamond Rio, and Music City's hottest newcomer, Rebecca Lynn Howard, will head north on a 12-city national tour of Canada.
Dubbed the "Full House Tour," the trek begins September 5 in Kelowna, BC and ends in Owen Sound, ON September 23 (complete tour schedule attached).
Kenny Rogers, the long-running King of Country whose career spans some six decades, has sold 105 million albums worldwide, been honored with four Grammy awards, 11 People's Choice Awards, 18 American Music Awards and
recorded 60 albums. Known globally for his mega-hit song, "The Gambler," and his colorful portrayal as The Gambler's Brady Hawks, Rogers has also enjoyed an enormously successful career as an actor. Hence, it's fitting for The Gambler to tour Canada with a Full House flushing out concert dates from east to west from September 5 through September 23.
Diamond Rio has enjoyed a string of #1 hits over the past decade - most recently, the crossover power ballad, "One More Day" that secured the #1 spot twice on both the Billboard and R & R country charts. "One More Day"
stayed in the Top 10 on Adult Contemporary charts for over 20 weeks. Diamond Rio is the most nominated country band of the 1990s and has earned six Vocal Group of the Year Awards, 11 Grammy nominations and numerous instrumentalist
nods for their individual talents. The six-man band, known for their one-of-a-kind three-part harmony, is dubbed the "Jacks" on this Full House Tour. They are currently enjoying enormous success with their new hitsingle,
"Beautiful Mess," from their forthcoming album,
"Completely," in stores August 20.
Rebecca Lynn Howard bids fair to be the new Queen with her powerful vocals and compelling performances. Howard's debut single, "Forgive," which she penned for her forthcoming album of the same name due in stores this summer, is racing up the country charts. An incredibly gifted songwriter, Howard's songs have been recorded by such artists as Reba McIntire, Patty Loveless, John Michael Montgomery and Lila McCann. A song Howard wrote with frequent collaborator Trey Bruce, "I Don't Paint Myself Into Corners," was just
released as a single by Trisha Yearwood.
August News
Rebecca Lynn Howard has cracked the Billboard Top 40 for the first time with "Forgive." It's the first single and video from her second album, Forgive (MCA Nashville, Aug. 27). Howard co-wrote the latest Trisha Yearwood single, "I Don't Paint Myself Into Corners." The song appears on Howard's first album.
From WomenOfCountry.com
Rebecca Lynn Howard has been the talk of the country music industry for awhile now. It also took forever for this album to get here. The new trend seems to be to delay album releases through a number of singles searching for that ideal release while a hit single is out on the airwaves. Labels have also been known to cancel albums when the singles didn't perform well. This is cruel and unfair to the artists and thankfully MCA Records kept Rebecca Lynn Howard on board even though her singles haven't done much as of yet. With that said it might have been a good idea to give Howard a little bit more time to work on this flawed debut.
Rebecca Lynn Howard has an incredibly powerful voice. In fact, there are times during this album where she uses it a little bit to much and the songs take on an irritating tone. That kind of feel you get when someone has been yelling at you for too long. A perfect example is in "I Don't Paint Myself Into Corners". This song is a truly stunning pure country ballad but towards the end of the tune when Howard decides to really let her voice wail you're left cringing for the note to be over. It's not even a flaw in her voice. It's actually that she was blessed with such an incredibly flawless and powerful set of pipes that when she doesn't control them the results can be damaging to the song.
When her vocals are kept under control the end result is some real winners. The single "Out Here In The Water" is a fun, flirty tune and deserved to be a much bigger hit than it has been to date. The same can be said for the heavily pop influenced "When My Dreams Come True". Howard seems to excel on these lighthearted, upbeat numbers. "Heartsounds" is a great tune that suffers from a little bit of overproduction and a little bit of over singing but it still works in the end.
"Melancholy Blue" is a heartbreaking song and I wouldn't be surprised to see it become a single. The album jumps back to the pop flavored side of things with "You're Real", which displays Howard's impressive vocal range in a more favorable light.
Rebecca Lynn Howard has a sparkling voice and is one of the more promising new talents to release an album in a while. Give her another album or two and her style will develop fully and hopefully she'll learn that sometimes an understated vocal performance is just as effective as an eardrum shattering one. If those two objectives can be met then you can mark my words, you'll be hearing a lot from Howard. As an album, this self-titled debut is not an earthshaking effort but it's a decent introduction to Howard's incredible talent.